Smart Sensor Devices for Aerial Light Fixture Failure Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aerial lighting fixtures lack effective monitoring and management systems, making it difficult to detect and respond to events such as hurricanes or equipment failures, which can lead to unnoticed or uncorrected issues like toppled light poles, resulting in reduced safety and efficiency in lighting operations.
Innovation Solution
Smart sensor devices are mounted to aerial lighting fixtures, equipped with sensors and communication capabilities, to monitor conditions, collect data, and provide real-time alerts and control signals, enabling remote management and compensation for failed or failing light sources, and alerting authorities to incidents like weather or geologic events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional light controllers are used in aerial lighting fixtures, then the lighting can be controlled to turn on or off based on light detection, but the system cannot detect or respond to events such as hurricanes or equipment failures
Solution Approach 1:
The controller is enhanced to perform multiple functions beyond simple light control. It now includes sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, temperature, humidity) and communication capabilities that enable it to detect environmental conditions, monitor equipment status, and communicate failure information remotely, transforming a single-function device into a multi-functional monitoring and control system
Solution Approach 2:
A communication module acts as an intermediary between the aerial lighting fixture and remote monitoring systems. This module transmits data about environmental conditions and equipment status to external systems, enabling remote detection and response to failures without requiring direct human inspection of each fixture
2Reliability
If no monitoring system is installed on aerial lighting fixtures, then the device complexity remains low, but it becomes difficult to determine which light poles are operational or have fallen over during events like hurricanes
Solution Approach 1:
The aerial lighting fixtures perform self-monitoring through integrated sensors that detect their own operational status, environmental conditions, and potential failures. The fixtures automatically generate and transmit failure data without requiring external monitoring equipment or manual inspection, enabling the system to monitor itself autonomously
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where sensors continuously monitor operational parameters and environmental conditions, the controller processes this data to detect anomalies or failures, and communication modules transmit feedback information to remote systems. This closed-loop feedback enables real-time detection and response to equipment failures and environmental events
Data Source
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AI summary
A system to identify incidents associated with streetlight fixtures based on sensor data from one or more smart sensor devices. Each smart sensor device is coupled to a respective streetlight fixture and captures data from one or more sensors. The data from a single smart sensor device or a plurality of smart sensor devices is aggregated to generate a current data signature of the one or more smart sensor devices. The current data signature is compared to a plurality of known signatures to determine if an incident associated with a streetlight fixture has occurred. Such incidents can include a failed light source, a failing light source, a weather incident, a geologic incident, etc. Depending on the type of incident an instruction is sent to the one or more smart sensor devices to perform one or more responsive actions.